Calculating machine



July 1942.

A. J. F ETTIG CALCULATING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1939 5 Sheets-Sheet lIiiiiliiiiiiiiiiil'lllll' INVENTORH 0p flri/Im #62 71 Mia p $1633 A. J.FETTIG 2,288,797

CALCULATING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1939 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 7, 1942.

5 RNE YS INVENTOR JIM/ 24rd 7 67 470 July 7, 1942. FETTIG 2,288,797

CALCULATING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1959 5 Sheqts-Sheet 3 INVENTOR I Mflri/iar {72271119 MW, 7, M ZT7%YS July 7, 1942. A. .1. FETTIGCALCULATING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1939 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 4 )NVENTORflriizzzrd F877 r y 1942- A. J. FETTlG 2,288,797

CALCULATING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1939 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 IN VEN TOR Y.flz-iQurdFei/Zg JM Wm A T TORNE Y5 Patented July 7, 1942 CALCULATINGMACHINE Arthur J. Fettig, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Burroughs AddingMachine Company, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan ApplicationDecember 6, 1939, Serial No. 307,762

8 Claims. (Cl. 197-127) This invention relates to a calculating machine.It is particularly concerned with the paper handling equipment of such amachine and relates to improvements for facilitating the feeding of worksheets into such a machine and to improved means for ejecting andstacking the sheets in desired order.

The invention is an improvement in certain respects on the machinedisclosed in Muller 2,110,399, March 8, 1938.

The general object of the invention is to provide an improved paperhandling equipment for a calculating machine.

A more specific object is to provide an improved means for facilitatingthe feeding of work sheets to a calculating machine.

Another particular object is to provide an improved means for ejectingwork sheets and stacking them face downward in a receptacle.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from thefollowing specification and drawings.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

Figure 1 is a left side elevation of a machine with the inventionapplied thereto.

Figure 2 is a right side elevation of the rear portion of the machinewith the invention applied thereto, the parts being shown in normalprinting position;

Figure 3 is a partial, right-side, sectional elevation of a portion ofthe paper equipment, the parts being in the position they occupy withthe front-feed throat open and the platen moved to a throw-backposition;

Figure 4 is a detail view of a portion of the power operating mechanismfor actuating some of the parts.

'Figure 5 is a detail view of the latching device for holding the paperfeeding means in a position to permit access to other parts of themachine.

Figure 6 is a detail perspective view-and a sectional view of the paperfeeding portion of the invention; and

Figure 7, 8, 9 and 10 are diagrammatic views showing the differentpositions of a work sheet as it is fed into and ejected from themachine.

The invention is shown as it is applied to the well-known Burroughsequipped with front-feed paper handling equipment. The body of themachine and some of the mechanisms have been illustrated but no attempthas been made to illustrate all parts of the machine as these are wellknown and their calculating machine illustration does not appearnecessary in the present case. The machine is illustrated and describedin many prior patents such as Burroughs 505,078 which shows the type ofprinting mechanismj Vincent 866,750 which shows the typeoi motor drive;Rinsche 1,172,484 which shows the subtraction and fugitive 1 mechanisms;Muller 1,397,774 which shows numerous carriage controls; Gascon No.1,395,991 and Muller 1,843,648 which show certain controls of theprinting mechanism; Rinsche 1,580,534 which shows the carriage movingequipment; and Pasinski Patents Nos. 1,778,506 and 1,911,768 which showcertain subtraction and multiple register improvements.

General machine features The main body of a Burroughs machine is shownat l in Fig. 1. The machine is cycled by means of a motor 2 controlledby a motor bar 3. Items are indexed on amount keys 4 which controlactuators 5. The actuators control a registering mechanism 6 andassociated devices for enabling calculations to be performed. Totals maybe taken under the control of a total key I. The machine has a printingmechanism, portions of which are shown at 8, the printing mechanismbeing operated at an appropriate time during a machine cycle to print anitem that has been entered, or the total of a number of items, as thecase may be.

In order to control the column in which printing shall occur, acolumn-printing control means is provided in the form of a travelingpaper carriage I0 supporting a platen H which is line spaced asdescribed in Kreis 913,738 and Rinsche 1,580,534. The carriage is movedlaterally across the machine in one direction by a spring drum 12 underthe control of a tabulating mechanism of which portions are shown at 13,said mechanism being described in detail in Vincent 929,056 and Rinsche1,580,534. The various positions of the carriage are detemined by tabstops it, which are adjustable on a tabulating rock shaft IS. Thecarriage normally moves in tabulating direction near the end of eachmachine cycle but it may be held stationary by a carriage normal key lliwhich may be made a "live" key as described in Muller 1,787,489.

The carriage is moved in the opposite direction by a carriage returnmechanism contained in the housing l1 and driven by the machine motor asdescribed in Rinsche 1,580,534.

The machine has a'front-feed paper equipment that includes portions thatmay be moved from a closed to an open-throat'condition and vice versa asdisclosed in British Patent No. 382,- 613 and German Patent No. 647,638.This equipment is of the type in which the platen is moved to athrow-back" position when the throat is opened and is returned toprinting position when the throat is closed. The platen II, which iscarried by a shaft (Fig. 3), is supported by a rocking frame 2| pivotedat 22. In normal printing position, the platen occupies the positionshown in Fig. 2 but, by rocking the frame 2| clockwise about its pivot,the platen may be moved to What is called the throw-back" or front-feed"position, of Fig. 3. The opening of the throat and the rocking of theplaten may be accomplished by hand as disclosed in said British patentbut it is preferably done by power and controlled automatically, thepower-operated automatic control being illustrated in the present case.

Referring to Fig. 1, the motor 2 rotates the snail cam one revolutionduring each machine cycle. As this cam rotates, it acts on a roller stud3| carried by a lever 32 pivoted at 33. The cam rocks said levercounterclockwise and thereby tensions a spring 34 fixed at one end tosaid lever and at its other end to a stationary stud on the machine.When said lever is rocked, it pulls down on a slide 35 which isthereupon latched in position by a latch 36 shown in Fig. 4. The powerof the motor is thus temporarily stored in the spring slide mechanismand this action takes place during the first part of the machine cycleso that the mechanism is ready to operate during the latter part of saidcycle, this: ar-

rangement providing flexibility as to the time during the cycle when thethroat opening mechanism shall operate. The upper end of the slide 35carries a roller stud 31 positioned to engage a bail 38 carried by twolevers 40 pivoted to the paper carriage at M (Fig. 2), therebeing alever on each side of the carriage. The forward ends of these levers areprovided with cam slots 42 in which are positioned studs 43 on the endsof cranks 44 fixed to the shaft 22 which rocks the platen frame. Whenthe platen is in printing position, the parts occupy the position shownin Fig. 2.

As described in said British and German patents, the mechanism may bereleased manually but is preferably automatically controlled by means ofone or more studs-45 (Figs. 1 and 4) carried by the bail 38. Thearrangement is such that, when the paper carriage reaches apredetermined position, a stud 45 trips the latch 35 whereupon the slide35 moves upward and the roller stud 31, acting on the bail 38, movessaid bail upward to rock the levers 40 counterclockwise. This rocks theplaten to throw-back" position where it is temporarily held. It may beheld by a latch or it may be held by the slide 35, both forms ofconstruction being disclosed in said British and German patents. In thepresent case, the latch has not been illustrated and the device is shownas held upward by the slide 35 as shown in Fig. 3.

The platen is automatically returned to printing position at thebeginning of the ensuing machine cycle, and prior to operation of theprinting mechanism, by the release of the bail 38 through the drawingdown of the slide 35 under the control of the cam 30 which rotates atthe beginning of the cycle. The platen is returned by gravity and aspring 35b (Fig. 1).

Thus, it will be seen that the platen is thrown back by power derivedfrom the motor, which power is temporarily stored in a spring mechanismso as to give flexibility of adjustment. This power may be released atan appropriate time and preferably automatically by the carriage. Theplaten is returned automatically to printing position at the beginningof the next machine cycle without any attention on the part of theoperator and prior to operation of the printing mechanism.

The front-feed throat is of the type that is formed by a set of feedrolls 50 (Fig. 3) cooperating with the platen Ii. These feed rolls aresupported by levers 5i fixed to a shaft 52 that is journaled in therocking platen frame 2!. The shaft 52 is urged clockwise (Fig. 3) bysprings 53 and 54 attached to a crank 54 fixed to the shaft 52 so thatthe feed rolls 50 are urged toward the platen. The crank arm 54 carriesa stud 55 operating in a slot 56 in a member 51 pivoted at 58 to thecarriage frame.

In the normal closed throat condition of the parts shown in Fig. 2, thefeed rolls 50 are in engagement with the platen II and the stud 55 isnear the bottom of the slot 56. As the platen is rocked rearward, thefeed rolls 50 move with it and the stud 55 moves upward and rearward inthe slot 56. The length of this slot is such that, slightly before theplaten reaches its frontfeed or throw-back position, the stud 55 engagesthe upper end of the slot 56 to prevent further movement of the upperend of lever 54. Consequently, as the platen frame rocks furtherrearward, the shaft 52 carrying crank 54 will be rocked rearward but theupper end of the crank cannot move. Thus, further bodily movement of thefeed rolls will be prevented while the platen moves away from them, andthe throat of the front-feed means will be opened.

As the platen ll returns toward printing position it moves toward thefeed rolls 50 and engages them, after which both the feed rolls and theplaten continue their movement to the printing position of Fig. 2. Thus,the front-feed throat is closed at the beginning of the movement of theplaten toward printing position and it remains closed while the platenis in printing position.

Immediately above the front-feed throat is a short paper guide or table60 pivoted at 6! to the paper carriage. When the front-feed throat isopen, as shown in Fig- 3, the paper table occupies .the position thereshown, where it serves to assist in guiding a sheet to front-feedposition relative to the platen, the sheet limiting against adjustablestops 62 on a lower guide 53. The position of the table is determined bythe engagement of a stud 60 on it with an adjustable stop I0 on thecarriage. When the platen is returned to printing position, the upperguide or table 60 is rocked clockwise about its pivot 6| by theengagement of a cam edge 2| of the platen frame (Fig. 2) with a stud 64on the table. During this movement, the loweredge of the paper table 60engages the upper free end of the work sheet and swings the sheet aboutthe platen thereby helping to hold the sheet in printing position asillustrated in the diagrammatic view of Fig. 9.

Except for slight modifications apparent from the drawings and the abovedescription, the front-feed means and its operation are, in general, thesame as that disclosed in said British patent.

door to door reading customers meters. the operator receives these billsthey are in Public utility billing In order that the invention may bemore clearly understood, a typical example of work to be performed andthe various problems connected with that work will be explained.

The paper handling equipment has been developed particularly to handlepublic utility bills. These are made out on relatively long and rathernarrow sheets of paper, familiar to almost every user of gas orelectricity. The operator of a machine such as disclosed herein receivesa stack of these bills with the customer's name already printed orstenciled thereon, and his job is to enter the proper items on the billfor each customer from information he obtains from a meter reader'sbook, the latter being the book that the meter reader takes with him ashe goes vfvliom in the machine, enters the items, and operates themachine to make the necessary entries on the bill, after which, as willbe presently explained,

the bill is automatically ejected from the machine.

After the operator has completed the making out of a group of bills,they go to another department, where further checking is done and otherrecords made which require that the bills remain in door-to-door order,as originally stacked. Consequently, it is important that, as the billsare ejected from the machine, they be stacked in the same "door-to-doororder as when received by the operator and one of the importantadvantages of the present invention is that this result is obtained in avery simple and inexpensive construction which places a minimum load onthe paper carriage.

Thousands of these bills must be made out every month by large utilitycompanies, and it naturally follows that every effort is made tofacilitate handling bills and speeding up the work. In the machine shownin Muller Patent No. 2,110,399, a stack of bills is supported by thetraveling carriage and the operator takes these one by one and placesthem in the machine. This construction has two disadvantages, namely,the stack of bills places a load on the paper carriage which isundesirable since the objective in calculating machines of the type inquestion is to lighten the load on the carriage rather than increase it.The second objection is that the stack of bills is not always in thesame place in front of the operator, moving to the different columnarpositions of the carriage, or the carriage may be moving at the time theoperator attempts to take a bill from a stack. In the present invention,both these disadvantages have been overcome by relieving the papercarriage, entirely of the load of the bills and by keeping them in astationary position so that they are always in the same position infront of the operator.

In Muller Patent 2,110,399, a mechanism was provided which is supportedby the paper carriage and which is operated after the sheet has beenejected to bodily lift the sheet and turn it over, face downward, into areceptacle. This requires considerable mechanism, the mechanism occupiesconsiderable space, provision must be made for operating the mechanism,and a measent invention overcomes these difilculties.

Paper feeding To facilitate handling the bills or work sheets, a paperfeeding device, which also acts as a magazine to receive a supply ofbills, is fixed to the machine instead of to the carriage. This feedingdevice is preferably positioned toward the right side of the machine sothat it is in proper relation to the carriage when the latter is in itsright-hand or home position.

The paper feeding device is in the form of a paper chute or guide thatis substantially V- shaped in cross section as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.It comprises a front plate made in two pieces I8 and H and a back plate12. The front and back plates are joined by suitable end plates 13, oneof which is clearly shown in Fig. 6. The end plates are integral withthe upper end of the front plate Ill and this upper end is mounted on ashaft 14 that extends laterally across the front end of the chute. Thelower portion ll of the front plate has its upper end curved, and thiscurved end is hooked over the shaft 14, the body of said front plate 1|resting against lateral lugs 15 (Fig. 6) extending from the end plates.The back plate 12 is bent upward and forward to form the portion 16which, in cooperation with the back plate, forms a pocket or magazine toreceive a stack of bills B as shown in Fig. 3. The back plate is thenbent downward again to form the portion 'II that converges toward thefront plate ll so as to form a V-shaped pocket for the receipt of worksheets, there being a narrow opening at the bottom between the twoplates. The upper end of the back plate 12 is curved and it hooks over ashaft 88 carried by two supporting arms 8| fixed to the machine by thescrews 8|. The end plates I3 are also journaled on this shaft 88. Thesupporting arms 8| are joined by the cross shaft 82 in addition to shaft80, to make a rigid construction. The shaft 83 is journaled in the endplates 13 for a purpose that presently will appear.

This mounting of the feeding device enables the main body of it to beswung clockwise about the shaft 80 from the position of Fig. 3 to thatof Fig. 5 to give free access to the platen and associated parts and tofacilitate insertion of a record sheet about the platen when such isused. In order that the body of the feeding device may be easily swungupward, a knob 88 (Fig. 5) is provided on the end of shaft 14 by meansof which the operator can rock the parts to the position of Fig. 5. Thefeeding device is releasably held in this position by a latch 85 (Fig.5) pivoted at 88 to one of the supporting arms 8|. This latch has a slot81 in it that receives the end of the shaft 88, the slot being providedwith a shoulder 88 that engages said shaft when the parts are thrown tothe upper position of Fig. 5. The latch 85 tends to movecounterclockwise in Fig. 5 by gravity, the arrangement being such that.when the chue is thrown to its upper position, the latch will fall overthe shaft 83 and temporarily hold the parts in such position. Theoperator may release the feeding device for movement to normal positionby lifting the latch 85 and as the device returns to normal the shaft 14limits against an adjustable stop 88 (Fig. 2) on one of the supportingarms 8|. The back plate 12 is provided with an extension 89 thatprevents the stack of bills 13 from sliding out when the feeding deviceis raised to its Fig. 5

position. This extension also has the important function of acting as aguide for enabling the operator to pass unused bills to the rear aspresently will appear.

In using the feeding device, the operator takes a bill B from the stackin the magazine and placesit in the V-shaped opening between the frontplate ID-II and the portion 11 of the back plate where however, the billis temporarily held by the following mechanism.

Fixed to the shaft 83 and positioned in the channel on the under side ofthe back plate I2 formed by the reverse folds heretofore described, is aseries of fingers 90. The shaft 83 is journaled in the end plates I3 andurged clockwise, as viewed in Figs. 2 and 3, by a spring 9| attached atone end to the back plate 11 and at the other end to an arm 92 fixed toshaft 83. The lower ends of the fingers are shaped to project throughopenings 93 (Fig. 6) in the portion 'I'I of the back plate I2. Fixed tothe shaft 83 is another arm 94 having a rearwardly projecting portion 95(Fig. 6). It will be obvious that, if the arm 94-95 is rockedcounterclockwise, the fingers 90 will be withdrawn to the positions ofFigs. 3 and 8, and that the bill that has been placed in feedingposition on said fingers will then be free to drop past the fingers intothe front-feed throat.

Inasmuch as the feeding device is stationary, whereas the paper carriagemoves, and inasmuch as it is not desired to permit a bill to drop whilethe front-feed throat is closed, provision is made for controlling thefingers so as to feed the bill only at the proper time, that is, whenthe carriage is in a predetermined position and when the front-feedthroat is open. The platen frame 2| (Fig. 3) is provided with a stud Iwhich, when the frame is rocked rearward, engages the abutment face IOIof a. lever I02 pivoted at I03 and urged clockwise by a spring I04. Theupper end of lever I02 has a slot in which is positioned a stud I06 on acrank I01 fixed to a shaft I08 journaled in the carriage frame. Fixed tothis shaft I08 is anarm I09 carrying a roller stud H0 positioned toengage the'under surface of the portion 95 of the arm 94-95. When thefront-feed throat is opened, and assuming that the roller stud H0 is inline with the under surface of the arm 94-95, the stud I 00 on theplaten frame will engage and rock the lever I02 counterclockwise. Thiswill rock the shaft I08 counterclockwise and the arm I09 with its rollerstud IIO will rock counterclockwise to thereby move the fingers 90 toreleasing position.

However, the above action does not occur unless the paper carriage isproperly aligned with the feeding device so that the bill will fall intoproper position relative to the endwise position of the platen. This iscontrolled by making the arm 9495 narrow and by making the roller studIIO narrow so that, whenever the carriage is away from its home"position, the roller stud will not be in line with the arm and, eventhough the front-feed throat is opened, the fingers 90 will not bereleased. The carriage position in which the roller stud H0 is inalignment with arm 9495 can, of course,be varied.

In the preferred embodiment, the front-feed throat is opened and thebill on which operations have been performed is ejected upon the returnof the carriage across the machine as presently will be described, andthis operation is delayed until the carriage reaches its home" positionso that, at the time the old bill is ejected, the feeding means isoperated to cause a new bill to move into the front-feed throat. Thistiming of operations is accomplished by having the stud 45 on a bail 38that trips the latch 36 located so that said stud engages the latch justas the carriage reaches its home position which causes the throat to beopened after the carriage reaches said position and after roller stud H0is in alignment with arm 94-95.

To summarize, when the carriage moves to a predetermined position, thebill on which entries have been made is automatically ejected, while, atthe same time, another bill is fed into the open throat so that when thethroat is closed the machine is in condition to begin operation on asecond bill,

Paper ejecting and delivering mechanism The individual bills or worksheets are ejected upward and rearward away from the platen by anejecting means such as shown in said Muller Patent 2,110,399. Portionsof this mechanism have been illustrated and it will be described brieflybut, for an understanding of all its details, reference is made to saidMuller patent.

Mounted above and slightly to the rear of the platen are two sets ofejecting rolls I20 and I 2| (Fig. 3) which are rotated by power derivedfrom the motor through the means that opens the front-feed throat. Theprimary ejecting rolls I20 are fixed to a. shaft I22 journaled in thecarriage frame. Referring to Fig. 2, a. spring I23 is connected betweenthe lever 40 of the platen rocking mechanism and a sector I24 pivoted atM in the carriage frame. This sector is prevented from rockingcounterclockwise in Fig, 2 by a spring held bell-crank latch I25 havinga tail I28. As the lever 40 is moved counterclockwise (Fig. 2) by theslide 35 and roller stud 31, the spring I23 is tensioned because thesector I24 cannot move. When the lever 40 approaches the end of itsmovement, a stud I21 on said lever engages the tail I26 of the latch I25and rocks said latch clockwise to thereby release the sector I24. Thesector is immediately moved counterclockwise by its spring and saidsector acts to rotate a gear I28 clockwise. The gear I28, acting througha pawl and ratchet connection I30 rotates a larger gear I 3I clockwise.The gear I3I rotates an intermediate gear I32 counterclockwise and thelatter rotates a gear I33 clockwise, the gear I33 being connected to theshaft I22 carrying the ejecting roll I20. The result is that, after thefront-feed throat is opened the ejecting roll I20 is rapidly rotated toeject the bill upwardly and rearwardly free of the platen.

The ejecting roll I2I are not positively driven and are, in effect,pressure rolls to insure that the bill will be properly gripped againstthe rolls I20 so that, when the latter rotate, the bill will be ejected.The rolls I2I are carried on the lower ends of yokes I35 pivoted on theshaft I08 and urged counterclockwise by springs I36 (Figs. 6-10). Thecounterclockwise movement of said yokes is limited by the engagement ofa lug I 35 (Fig. 6) on each with a corresponding arm I38 fixed to theshaft I08. It will be recalled that shaft I08 is controlled bya leverI02 whose lower end has an abutment face IOI positioned in the path of astud I00'on the platen frame 2I.' These parts are proportioned andlocated so that, when the platen is thrown from printing to front-feed"position the stud I00 engages the lower end oflever I02 and rocks itagainst the 'tension of its spring I04 to rock the shaft I08counterclockwise, thereby allowingthe yokes I35 to move counterclockwisetomove the pressure rolls I2I into engagement with the bill that maythen be between it and the power rotated ejecting rolls I20. These partswere previously described in connection with paper feeding but they areparts that form part of the ejecting mechanism, which parts have beenused to control the feeding device. a

When the front-feed throat is closed and the platen is in the printingposition of Fig. l, the sets of ejecting rolls are separated asillustrated in Figs. 2 and 9. It will be observed from Fig. 9 that theupper end of the bill B is below the ejecting rolls but it is directedtoward the space between them, being held in position by the pivotedguide or table 60. As the bill is line spaced, its upper end movestoward the space between the ejecting rolls but normally does not reachthem as the result of this operation. However, as the front-feed throatis opened and the platen thrown back, the upper end of the bill is movedbetween the ejecting rolls and then atan appropriate time as describedin said Muller Patent 2,110,399, the ejecting rolls are rapidly rotatedto eject the bill, the front-feed throat having, in the meantime, beenopened. To facilitate proper movement of the bill between the feedrolls, sheet metal guides I40 and HI are provided, as shown in Fig. 9,these guides being a portion of the sheet-receiving receptacle to bepresently described. When the throat is closed and the platen rocked toprinting position, the rolls I2I are moved away from rolls I20 by theaction of spring I04 on lever I02. I

The bills B are stacked face downward in a receptacle supported by thepaper carriage through a very simple construction that makes use of theresiliency of the paper and its tendency to straighten out after beingbent.

Referring to Fig. 3, a sheet metal guide I50, whose lower end serves toguide the sheet between the ejecting rolls, extends upward and rearwardand is bent slightly forward. This guide then extends rearward at rightangles at II a short distance and then extends downward at I52substantially parallel to the forward bend of the guide, the line ofthese two parallel portions being that in which it is desired todischarge the bills. A U-shaped pocket is thus formed to receive theupper ends of the bills as they are ejected, the portion I52 serving toguide the sheets into the pocket and the base of the U forming a limitagainst which the bills may strike if they are ejected far enough. As abill is ejected its upper end is bent, as shown in Figs. 3 and 10, sothat said upper end is substantially parallel to the plane in which itis desired to discharge the bill. When the lower end of the bill isreleased by the ejecting rolls, the sheet straightens out to thedot-dash position of Fig. 10 and, the sheet being then unsupported,drops by gravity into a receptacle I60. This receptacle is attached tothe carriage frame at I6I and is preferably located at an angle as shownin Fig. 3. The bill drops into this receptacle and each bill drops facedownward on the one preceding it. Thus the bills are automatically setin the same door-to-door order as when received by the operator. Thereceptacle has a rear extension I62 to prevent bills from moving out ofthe receptacle, particularly when it is well filled. The guides I40 andI are preferably stuck out of portions of the receptacle.

mechanism is necessary; there is no noise con-" nected with itsoperation; it can be made exceedingly light because the guides can bemade of very thin, light metal; it occupies very little space; and itplaces verylittle load on the carriage. At the same time it has beenfound to operate very efficiently to control the bills as they areejected so as to cause them to be automatically stacked face downwardinthe receptacle.

It sometimes happens that no entries are to be made on certain bills inwhich event it would be a waste of time to put them through the machine,yet at the same time it is desired to have these bills stacked in properorder with the bills on which entries are being made. A very simpleprovision has been made for enabling this to be accomplished.

In the event. the operator does not desire to make an entry on a bill hesimply places it on the extension 80 and allows it to slide rearward.The paper carriage is provided with a guide plate 0 (Fig. 3) which isspaced from the guide plate I52, the upper end of the plate "0 divergingrearwardly relative to the plate I52 to form a wide throat. The plateI10 together with the plate I52 forms a chute for receiving a bill fromthe extension 89 and guiding it downwardly and rearwardly in a mannersuch that it will fall face downward in the receptacle I60. This adds nocomplicated parts to the construction yet at the same time it provides amost convenient arrangement for enabling the unused bills to be stackedin proper relation without requiring that they be put through themachine. 7

In order to maintain the bills in the proper door-to-door order the billon which no entries are to be made should not be moved rearward untilthe bill in the machine has been ejected and is in the receptacle I60.This ejection takes place when the carriage is in its home position andhence, at the time the operator places the unused bill on extension 89,the carriage with the chute I52-I'I0 is in line with said extension.

Operation In using the machine, the operator proceeds as follows:

He receives a stack of bills which are in doorto-door order and placesthem in the magazine portion of the feeding device. The paper carriageshould be in its right-hand or home position. In this position, thefront-feed throat is open-and the fingers are in the position of Fig. 3.The operator takes the first bill and places it face downward againstthe front plate of the feeding device and allows it to drop into thefront-feed throat where it rests against the stops 62 as shown in Fig.8. He then makes the necessary entries on the amount keys and gives themachine a cycle of operation whereupon the front-feed throat will beautomatically closed prior to the printing operation. Near the end ofsaid cycle, the carriage moves in tabulating direction to apredetermined column to receive another entry. As the front-feed throatcloses the sheet-holding fingers will be moved to holding position asshown in Fig. 9. At any time after the closing of the throat in the homeposition of the carriage, and during either the tabulating or the returnmovement of the carriage, the operator can drop a new sheet intoposition against the fingers 90 as shown in Fig. 9. The operator makesthe necessary entires in the various columnar positions of the carriageand, after predetermined operations, the carriage return mechanism isset into operation to return the carriage to its home position. Suchreturn usually occurs at the end of a machine cycle initiated bydepression of the motor bar. As the carriage reaches its home positionthe frontfeed throat is opened automatically, the sheet upon whichentries are made is ejected and stacked face downward in the receptacle,and the sheet that the operator has just placed in feeding position willbe allowed to drop down in the open throat by the moving of the paperfingers to the position of Fig. 10 where these operations areillustrated diagrammatically.

The operator is then ready to repeat the operations above described onthe second bill and to place a third bill in position for feeding.

In the event the operator does not want to make entries on a bill besimply places it on the guide 89 and allows it to drop rearwardly intoits proper position in the receptacle.

From this it will be seen that a very simple construction has beenprovided that places a minimum weight on the carriage yet provides amaximum convenience for the operator, and a construction that will notonly automatically stack the bills in proper door-to-door order but alsoone that enables unused bills to be easily placed in their properposition in the stack.

I claim:

1. A machine of the class described having means for giving it cycles ofoperation, a printing mechanism, a. traveling paper carriage, front-feedmeans on said carriage and including portions movable from anopen-throat condition for receiving a front-fed work sheet to aclosedthroat condition for holding said sheet in printing position andfrom closed throat to openthroat condition, sheet-receiving meanslaterally stationarily supported on said machine for receiving a secondwork sheet placed therein while the first work sheet is held in printingpo sition, sheet-holding means for temporarily holding said second worksheet in said sheetreceiving means, and power means controlledautomatically in accordance with the position of said paper carriage andoperating automatically during a cycle of operation of said machine toopen said front-feed throat, automatically eject the first work sheetand condition said sheetholding means to cause the second work sheet tomove into said front-feed throat.

2. A machine of the class described having means for giving it cycles ofoperation, a printing mechanism, a traveling paper carriage,

front-feed means on said carriage and including portions movable from anopen-throat condition for receiving a front-fed work sheet to aclosedthroat condition for holding said sheet in printing position andfrom closed throat to openthroat condition, sheet-receiving meanslaterally stationarily supported on said machine for receiving a secondwork sheet placed therein while the first work sheet is held in printingposition, sheet-holding means for temporarily holding said second worksheet in said sheet-receiving means, and power means controlledautomatically in accordance with the position of said paper carriage andoperating automatically during a cycle of operation of said machine toopen said front-feed throat, automatically eject the first work sheetand condition said sheet-holding means to cause the second work sheet tomove into said front-feed throat, said power means operatingautomatically during the next cycle of operation of the machine to closesaid front-feed throat to grip the second work sheet in printingposition and to re-enable said sheet-holding means.

3. A machine of the class described having a traveling paper carriage,front-feed means for receiving and holding a work sheet in front-fedposition, said front-feed means including portions movable from a closedto an open-throat condition and vice versa, means for moving saidfront-feed means to open-throat condition, a paper-feeding meanssupported in a stationary position on said machine, sheet-holding meansassociated with said paper feeding means for temporarily holding a worksheet in feeding position, and means controlled by said carriage inaccordance with its position, and operated by said front-feed movingmeans as the latter is moved to move the front-feed means to openthroatcondition, for moving said sheet-holding means to release the work sheetheld by it to thereby enable said sheet to move into the open front-feedthroat.

4. A machine of the class described having a traveling paper carriage,front-feed means for receiving and holding a work sheet in front-fedposition, said front-feed means including portions movable from a closedto an open-throat condition and vice versa, means for moving saidfront-feed means to open-throat condition, a paper-feeding chutesupported in stationary position on said machine in position to guidework sheets to said front-feed means, paper fingers as-, sociated withsaid chute for temporarily holding a work sheet in feeding position, andmeans controlled by said carriage in accordance with its position, andoperated by said front-feed moving means as the latter is moved to movesaid frontfeed means to open-throat condition, for moving said fingersto release the work sheet held by them to thereby enable said sheet tomove into the open front-feed throat.

5. A machine of the class described having a traveling paper carriage,front-feed means for receiving and holding a work sheet in front-fedposition, said front-feed means including portions movable from a closedto an open-throat condition and vice versa, means for moving saidfront-feed means to open-throat condition, a paper-feeding chutesupported by said machine in a stationary position, said chute includinga magazine portion for supporting a stack of work sheets and otherportions for guiding a work sheet to said front-feed means so that awork sheet may move by gravity into said front-feed means, paperfingersassociated with the guiding portions of said chute fortemporarily holding a work sheet in feeding position, means controlledby said carriage in accordance with its position, and operated by saidfront-feed moving means as the latter is moved to move said front-feedmeans to open-throat condition, to move said fingers to release the worksheet to enable it to move into the open front-feed throat by gravity,and arresting means for arresting the sheet in a predeterminedline-space position.

6. A front-feed machine of the class described having a printing means,a rotatable platen movable bodily from printing position relative tosaid printing means to an out-of-printing position and vice versa, meansfor holding a frontfed work sheet in printing position on the front ofsaid platen, sheet-ejecting means positioned above said platen, saidejecting means being mounted to enable it to be moved bodily away fromsaid platen to facilitate access to the latter, said ejecting meansincluding portions that are normally operated automatically to ejectsaid work sheet when said platen is moved from printing position toout-of-printing position, a front-feed sheet-feeding means above saidplaten mounted for movement bodily away from said platen to facilitateaccess to the latter, sheetholding means on said sheet-feeding means fortemporarily holding a second work sheet in front-feeding position insaid sheet-feeding means, and operating connections for disabling saidsheet-holding means and causing said second sheet to move to front-Jedposition relative to said platen when said platen moves from printingposition to out-of-printing position, said operating connectionsincluding portions that are automatically disabled when either saidsheet-feeding means or said ejecting means is moved away from saidplaten and re-enabled when said sheet-feeding means and ejecting meansare in normal position.

7. A machine of the class described having a platen and means to hold awork sheet in printing position relative to said platen to enable saidsheet to receive printing impressions on its face, a receptacle forejected sheets to the rear of said platen, means for ejecting a worksheet that is in printing position face upward over said platen,sheet-inverting means comprising guide members for inverting the ejectedsheet and delivering it face downward into said receptacle, andauxiliary means including a guide member of said inverting means forenabling an unused sheet to be passed rearward independently of saidplaten and said ejecting means, which auxiliary means acts todeliver theunused sheet face downward in said receptacle.

8. A machine of the class described having a platen and means to hold awork sheet in printing position relative to said platen to enable saidsheet to receive printing impressions on its face, a receptacle forejected sheets, means for ejecting a work sheet that is in printingposition face upward over said platen, and sheet-inverting means forinverting the ejected sheet and delivering it face downward into saidreceptacle, said inverting means including a guide member at the rearthereof, said guide member extending downward and to the rear of saidejecting means for enabling an unused sheet to be passed rearward oversaid platen and said ejecting means to deliver said unused sheet facedownward in said receptacle.

ARTHUR J. FETIIG.

